Life Lite (left); LED Life Lite (right)

My Grandmother used to keep one of these little disposable incandescent lights in her kitchen drawer. By today's illumination standards, you'd think that a light design that has been around that long would be completely outdated. Incredibly, despite the fact that the Life Lite design hasn't changed in years, it's still a respectable general-use flashlight.

Garrity recently decided to ride the wave of LED enthusiasm and has finally updated the Life Lite with a new model, the LED Life Lite which is not as bright as the original, is a little slimmer, but has much longer runtime.

Body: The body of both lights is rather simple. It consists of a sealed plastic clamshell case with a switch on the back of the head. The incandescent model has a glow-in-the-dark switch (which is made from a very good glow material) while the LED model has a rubberized grip around the front and no glow switch.

Bezel/Head: Both lights are designed to produce a very narrow beam of light with a good spillbeam. The incandescent model does this with a well-constructed reflector while the LED model uses a faceted reflector and a convex lens to focus the light of the LED.

Output: The Life Lite (original) is purported to be a "light of choice" for firefighters, and I can see why. A very narrow intense beam is the key to its success. Narrow beams are better at penetrating dense atmospheres (smoke, fog) than are wider beams. Surrounding the bright central spot is a star-like corona and an irregular spillbeam.

The LED Life Lite produces a bluish LED beam and a soft spillbeam filled with rings from the lens setup. The LED light is about 1/4 as bright as the original.

   
Beam at one meter at target center and at target edge to show spillbeam.

   
Beam at one meter at target center and at target edge to show spillbeam.

Runtime Plot: The incandescent Life Lite does a pretty good job in the runtime department. 3½ hours to 50%. This seems almost impossible from a light this size, but when you see the batteries, below, you'll understand how that managed to make it run so long.

More information on runtime plots is available HERE.

The LED Life Lite runs on three AA cells, and since those cells are powering only 1 LED, the runtime is fantastically long. In fact, after 36 hours, I stopped the runtime test and it still had not reached 50% (oops!).

More information on runtime plots is available HERE.

Switch: The switches are simple sliders. Slide forward for on, back for off. Only the incandescent light uses a GITD material for the switch, and it is the better glow material that will glow for several hours when charged up.

Seals / Water Resistance: Waterproof? Ha! There is plenty of room for water entry with these lights. Splashable at best.

Ergonomics: These lights are actually surprisingly ergonomic, with the head pointed at an angle. Very easy to hold and use.

Size compared to a common 2AA aluminum light

Batteries: Inside the incandescent Garrity, you see this monstrosity of a battery:

Peel it open and this is what you find:

Here is an AA cell sitting on top for comparison:

These cells are known as 3LR12, , 3R12, LR12, MN1203, 1289, or MN1203AB cells. The packaging says that this is a "Super Heavy Duty" cell, so it's not an alkaline. I know some Petzl headlamps use these cells, so this light could serve as a very cheap source of these batteries if you can't find them elsewhere. Getting the sealed light body isn't all that easy, however. The 1289 cells are larger than AA cells and as a result hold significantly more energy which is why the Garrity Life Lites have such long runtimes.

So what about the LED Life Lite?

Inside you'll find 3 AA cells. Nothing to see here... Move along...

Accessories: None provided.

What I Liked: Good runtimes, decent output.

What I Didn't Like: Disposable - what a huge waste. Beams are full of artifacts. Not waterproof.

Picky Little Things:

Conclusions: Overall, the Garrity Life Lite series provides consumers with good, inexpensive, general-purpose lights. Runtime is admirable for the incandescent version, and very good for the LED version.

Quick Facts Table: